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We decided not to train him because it would have meant giving him different conditions to the rest of our dogs.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t hunt, obsessively, for anything small that moves (unlike truffles).

This mouse is his handiwork, I’m sure: I found it near the car where he’d been circling, and I can’t say it gave me much of a pang because they get in the engine. One even made a nest in the Wet Wipe packet in the glove compartment.

But the big green lizard that he killed – of a type so big we call them Komodo Dragons – now that did upset me.

Fortunately it’s in a relatively sheltered angle of the house, protected from northerly and easterly winds which are the worst.

All the same, it has a rough time of it and is showing its teeth in a grimace to prove it.

The car's teeth and little goatee beard

We run the engine for a short while every day, and hope that it won’t seize up.

It it does, we have an additional problem because the opening mechanism of the bonnet is very dodgy. A local garage has said they’ll repair it, but they’ve asked to keep the car for a whole morning and that would mean yours truly sitting in the nearby Bar for the duration since there’s no alternative transport home.